Cats Are Not Peas Cats Are Not Peas a Calico History of Genetics

Cats Are Not Peas Cats Are Not Peas A Calico History of Genetics Laura Gould A K Peters, Ltd. Wellesley, Massachusetts Editorial, Sales, and Customer Service Office A K Peters, Ltd. 888 Worcester Street, Suite 230 Wellesley, MA 02482 www.akpeters.com Copyright © 2007 by A K Peters, Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. First edition published in 1996 by Copernicus (an imprint of Springer- Verlag New York, Inc.). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gould, Laura L. (Laura Lehmer) Cats are not peas : a calico history of genetics / Laura Gould. – 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-56881-320-2 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-56881-320-1 (alk. paper) 1. Calico cats. 2. Cats–Genetics. 3. Calico cats–Anecdotes. I. Title. SF449.C34G68 2007 636.8’22–dc22 2007015703 < Cover image: Acknowledgements or statement of location in book> Printed in the United States of America 11 10 09 08 07 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For George, of course (and Max, too) and in memory of my mother, Emma Trotskaya Lehmer, who died peacefully in her Berkeley home exactly halfway through her one hundred and first year, just as the final revisions to this book were being made. She didn’t like cats at all, but she did like Cats Are Not Peas, and was pleased to know that this very personal book would live on. Also in memory of my father, Derrick Henry Lehmer, whose provocative question “How does the Thermos bottle know whether to make things hotter or colder?” sent his children down the path of lifelong learning. Contents Preface to the Second Edition ix Preface to the First Edition xi Acknowledgments xvii 1. In the Beginning, There Was George... 1 2. How Do You Get a George? 17 3. George’s Ancient Ancestry 43 4. Ancient Theories of Sex 65 5. The Genesis of Genetics 75 6. What Did They See and When Did They See It? 101 7. The Early Calico Papers 111 8. Twentieth-Century Theories of Sex 133 9. The Late Calico Papers 169 10. The Cat Is Out of the Bag 185 Afterword 189 Addendum: Genetics Marches On 193 Informal Glossary 241 Dateline 249 References 253 Question Index 277 Index 281 vii Preface to the Second Edition ats Are Not Peas was a labor of love: love of its protagonists, Clove of the pursuit of knowledge, love of the unexpected, the arcane, and the bizarre. It began in 1986 with the joint arrival of George and Max, who fi lled my life with joy and struggle. Then suddenly—in 1991, when the cats turned fi ve—all of my histori- cal questions about George and his weird genetics appeared to have been answered and I realized that the book was done. A remarkable amount of progress has been made in the fi eld of genetics since 1991, so some sort of update is clearly needed. Making changes to the original text, however, feels wrong: It documents a personal odyssey, long completed, and almost all of its scientifi c content remains accurate because so much of it deals with theories, problems, personalities, and publications relating to the now long-resolved mystery of the rarity of male calico cats. Thus, the fi rst edition is reprinted here virtually unchanged, but with this minor warning: When you read descriptions of tasks not yet completed or facts not yet known, please keep in mind that some of these issues may since have been resolved. A lengthy Addendum has been provided, however, which can be found following the Aft erword to the fi rst edition. It explores two major new areas of genetics in which cats have had signifi - cant roles to play: the sequencing of genomes and the production of clones. Information from this Addendum has been added to the Informal Glossary, Dateline, References, and Question Index sections, also to be found at the back of the book. Writing about leading-edge science is very diff erent from writing about science long past, and that diff erence is refl ected in the Preface to the Second Edition ix style and structure of this new material. It’s personal only in the sense that I’m the one who has chosen what to write about from within the immense wealth of information that’s now available to all of us via the World Wide Web. Some refl ections on the use of this new medium are also included. The Addendum is described as a smorgasbord, and my hope is that it will give you the impetus and confi dence to follow your noses, as I have, to explore the nooks and crannies of genetics (or any other fi eld that sparks your interest) in some way that is personal, informative, and compelling. But as you read it, please remember that some of what’s documented is so current that if there were to be a third edition, it might have to be updated or re- writt en. With this caveat, I wish you bon voyage and bon appétit! x Preface to the Second Edition Preface to the First Edition like to read Prefaces (and Forewords and Prologues), those I lonely, neglected texts, oft en thumbed past hastily on the way to the core of the tome. I read them carefully for what they can tell me about the origins of objects and ideas, and I am oft en re- warded, as I was in this 1949 example writt en by Lady Christabel Aberconway: Many people may wonder how I came to make this Dictionary of Cat Lovers. Briefl y, this is the answer. In the early days of the war I travelled twice a week between London and North Wales, at the best a seven-hour journey. Aft er dark, one read by the light of a torch or a bicycle lamp, precariously perched on a knee or a shoulder. One evening, while an Alert was sounding, a fellow passenger remarked: “That noise is like the screaming of demon cats in agony.” I found the speaker liked cats. The man sitt ing opposite then declared he loathed them. The woman beside me said, for her part, she liked them. The litt le man opposite her said he loved them. I have always loved them. It occurred to me, sitt ing in that darkened train, that if I could read about people who had liked cats, and if I could read what they had writt en about their own cats, perhaps I might discover why those exquisite, fastidious, and sympathetic animals are either warmly loved—or loathed. Preface to the First Edition xi The idea, conceived in a half-dream, has been carried out, and this Dictionary is the result. I confess to feel- ing almost certain that if at the beginning I had foreseen the years of study and research on which I was embarking, and the depressing times when unknown Memoirs or Lett ers, arid and unrewarding, seemed to be my only reading, my courage would have failed. Yet now, looking back, my most vivid memories are of intoxicating moments when I discovered, sometimes through a writt en reference, sometimes through the kindness of a friend, new and lovely works unknown to me until then, even perhaps by name. How charming and amusing it is: the image of the Baroness on the darkened wartime train; the truly random event that sent her off on a journey that was to last not seven hours but years and years; her excitement and dismay over various discoveries; her persistence and passion for the task; her gratitude for paths to unexpected treasures. I have been there too. I recognize it all. My journey began not in a darkened train but in a brightly lighted garage where evidence of country mice was all too visi- ble. Cats, we thought, we must get some cats—working cats who would patrol the property and keep the vermin at bay. A small and simple thought, reasonable and straightforward, easily im- plemented. Who could have foreseen its consequences? In happy ignorance, we visited the local animal shelter and selected two kitt ens, George and Max, and the choice of George (based largely on his ability to get along with Max) turned out to be the random event responsible for this lengthy odyssey. For George was a calico cat—a male calico cat—and calicos are in- variably female. He was a genetic anomaly, a manifestation of something that isn’t supposed to happen, a creature so rare that even most vets have never seen one. George was also an instigator of infi nite questions. My curios- ity about his existence has caused me to learn some basic genetics, to examine its history, to explore the calico folklore, and to think about evolutionary change. Thus George has sent me to a multitude of libraries and kept me in my studio on beautiful xii Preface to the First Edition aft ernoons, with my nose deep in a book or my eyes squinting wearily before a computer screen; he has caused me to become a bore at dinner parties and a pest on the telephone; he is responsible for all that follows. In surveying a diverse literature I’ve been happily surprised by the unexpected humor that has bubbled forth, oft en uninten- tionally, from the pages of scientifi c books and journals that one might expect to be much less eff ervescent.

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